How to join
The webinar is free to attend and it will take place online via Microsoft Teams Webinars. You can register for the event below and you will receive an invitation via email.
What this webinar will explore:
Introducing the Reflective Parenting model, created by renowned Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Dr Sheila Redfern.
Sheila will give an introduction and overview of her acclaimed model of parenting and fostering from her two books for parents. Participants will learn about the tools and skills needed to develop a closer more connected relationship between parent and child and understand how Mentalizing can be the key to understanding what's going on in both the child's mind, and their own!
Reflective Parenting and Reflective Fostering have been proven to reduce parenting stress and increase the connection between parent/carer and child. Sheila will cite recent evidence from a large scale clinical trial which attests to the power of her model to improve long term outcomes for parents and children.
Come and join us and learn how regulating your own (parents) emotional temperature can help children to regulate their emotions and reduce behaviour outbursts.
Who Should Attend
Suitable for therapists, social workers, teachers, family support workers, youth workers, foster carers, parents and carers supporting children and families.
Who is Dr Sheila Redfern
Dr Sheila Redfern has worked as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in NHS and Third Sector teams for over 30 years. She headed up teams in Tier 3 CAMHS, establishing a service for adolescents who self-harm, a service for Under 5s and led a team specialising in family trauma at Anna Freud for the past 11 years before leaving to pursue her own work. She is internationally recognised as an expert in mentalization based interventions for parents and foster carers and has published three books for parents on her own model of MBT parenting; Reflective Parenting.
Sheila is a recognised expert in the field of child and adolescent psychology and has kept her focus on working directly with families throughout her career, in addition to her work training professionals nationally and internationally. She is highly skilled in carrying out complex assessments of children and young people from a wide range of backgrounds and developmental profiles.
She has innovated interventions for foster carers which have contributed most recently to an evidence-base for carers (the Reflective Fostering Programme). Sheila also holds a particular interest in working with families where members are neuro-divergent and where parents are seeking to understand their child better and have a closer connection.
Sheila holds a PhD from Kings College, London, in addition to her clinical qualifications, and is passionate about evidence-based interventions. She believes that no child or family is beyond help and, with the right fit of both therapist and type of intervention, every child and young person is capable of reaching their full potential.
You can see Sheila’s publications here and more about her work and media engagements here
Published works: Reflective Parenting by Sheila Redfern
Following on from her acclaimed first book, Reflective Parenting, Sheila Redfern brings a fresh look at parenting young children in today’s world.
In this revised edition Dr Redfern uses her extensive experience of working with children and their families to help parents adopt an approach to their children that ensures their long-term security, resilience and well-being in the face of life’s challenges. Using everyday examples, this book provides you with practical strategies to develop a reflective style of parenting that supports your child’s development, enhances their relationships – with you and with their friends and siblings – and reach their full potential.
Reflective Parenting shows us that there are no quick fixes to difficult behaviours or emotions and that the best route to managing children’s behaviour is to help guide them in how they manage their emotions. Crucially, it shows us that parents are the key to their children’s long-term emotional and behavioural well-being and that adopting a reflective parenting stance can vastly improve your relationship with your child.
Reflective Parenting is an informative and enriching read for parents, written to help parents form a better relationship with their children and to help support their healthy emotional development in today's challenging world. It is also an essential resource for clinicians working with children, young people and families to support them in managing the dynamics of the child-parent relationship.
Published works: How Do You Hug a Cactus by Sheila Redfern
Have you ever wondered what’s going on in your teenager’s mind? This engaging book will give you the tools to understand just that to ultimately help you keep the close connection you both need during these tricky years.
Following on from her acclaimed book for parents of younger children, Sheila Redfern brings the reflective parenting model to parents of teenagers. Teenagers can be experienced as prickly and hard to get close to – like a cactus – but Dr. Redfern shows us how this stage of your child's life can be more enjoyable and connected than you'd imagined. Rather than focusing on their behaviours, this book emphasises how we can teach teenagers to manage their feelings and relationships in safe ways. It advocates theories underpinning reflective parenting – mentalizing, attachment and neuroscience – as essential for building resilience and security in young people, which is crucial through the storm and stress of adolescence. Chapters are filled with everyday, relatable scenarios and practical advice on pressing issues such as self-harm, social media and gaming, risk and ASD. There is also a chapter devoted to adoptive parents and foster carers.
This practical guide aims to help readers become more reflective and available as parents and understand what might be in their teenager’s head. It also serves as an essential resource for clinicians working with families.